Open Blog

For my open blog post this week I'm going to talk about what will transfer from my WRA class into my future career. This class has shown me how to properly analyze a paper and pay attention to the minor details. I can carry this skill with me into future endeavors, such as reading a medical chart. It's the minor details that could mean life or death. Also, communication through papers and speech. There is no doubt that sometime or another I'll have to write a paper into a company or to my future boss and knowing how to properly structure it and what style I should use will also come in handy. Furthermore, I may become one of those veterinarians that blog about stuff happening around the office and by keeping this blog I learned how to do it and keep up with it.

Final Post

Looking back at my first blog experience, I learned that although I didn't like doing it at first and thought it was a waste of time, I found out that I actually enjoyed letting others know my point of view on certain issues and it also encouraged me to look further into my future career choice. In doing so, I realized that being a veterinarian is what I really want to do. I love learning more about it and the controversies within the field. Everything about it intrigues me and to become part of that would be amazing. Also, in reading my classmates blogs, I learned a little something about their future careers and goals. It was awesome to learn that information from people my own age so I could see why they chose that particular job. Overall, this may have been the most rewarding project and who knows, in the future I may start my own blog!

Reflecting and Researching

Reading over my blog posts I realized that I have many opportunites available to me in the vet field. I always thought I had just wanted to go into mixed animal private practice but now I'm not sure. I also realized that the veterinarians who guest lectured during my vet class were very proud of their accomplishments and I want to be like that. The last thing I learned about my field was that no matter which way I go in the career, I'm not stuck there. If I want to be a vet in the army, after my service I could still go into private practice or get another degree in zoology and work at the zoo with exotic species.
I learned that to write my open blog posts I needed to actually listen in class and learn so I could correctly tell you all about it. I also learned that it's difficult to find things to talk about when you've exhausted your sources and don't feel like blogging. However, now looking back it was a rewarding experience for me because I have all my veterinary information in one place. Also, my future employers may find this page and see that I knew about the various career choices and didn't just jump on the first thing.

Open Blog Post

One veterinarian that has truly inspired me teaches and works here at MSU, Dr. Ames. I hadn't met him until just recently but ever since he has been inspiring me to continue with that I'm doing. He loves his job, he loves the downs because he knows that the ups aren't too far away. He also taught me that loving animals isn't always enough to go into this field. And it's definitely not about the money. He says, "Being a veterinarian isn't going to make you rich but it'll keep food on the table." I'm so glad that I took his class because we learned off all the different aspects of the vet field and what all we could do with the degree. He encourages us to explore various careers.

Practicing Your Knowledge

This post asked us to go and get hands on experience in our field. I have previously helped my hometown vet so I'm just relying on my work there and I didn't have time to go to the MSU vet and get further experience. While I was helping my vet around his office with handling papers and feeding and watering the patients, I also got the chance to shadow in on a surgery. Yeah, it was a simple neutering process but I was able to witness all the goes on and it was amazing. How it differed from just reading about the process online was in the intensity you felt in the room. You also got to see the vet techs hand over the tools and adjust the oxygen mask or just little things that if you're not there to witness you don't even think they go on..

Open Blog Post

My open blog post that I also forgot the post along with the Learning the Language post. It has to do with the jargon that was previously discussed. Stating that a dog is PU or HBC is just a faster way to say they're dead or seriously injured and also let the other vets know what caused the injury, in the HBC or HBO case. Medical jargon is widely used in all medical fields and although it differs from practice to practice, the reasoning behind it stays the same. Say the doctors are treating a patient and the mother comes in hysterical. They cannot tell the nurse that they may not make it with the mother standing right there so to get the necessary action done and not disturb the mother any further they resort to jargon.

Learning the Language

So when I went to make sure I had all the post I found this post in my drafts that hadn't gone through when I published it. So it's a little late and out of order.

For my learning the language post I decided to use the TV show, Animal Practice. It's a comedy describing the life of a veterinarian and his office. He has unorthodox methods but they work. The only animal he cannot stand are the ones walking on two feet; the owners. Although it's a comedy there are still many terms that veterinarians actually use that may seem like jarble to others.

-zoonotic disease - a disease that can be spread from animal to human (ex. rabies)
-HBC - Hit by car
-HBO - Hit by owner
-Agroceryosis - lack of groceries i.e. owner hasn't been feeding the animal
-CFT - chronic food toxicity i.e. obese
-PU - paws up (dead)

This allows vets to freely talk amongst themselves when surrounded by the owners so they either don't freak out or the vets can really figure out what's going on and how to handle it.

Open Blog Post

This week for my open blog post I want to talk about veterinarians in the military. Yeah, I was thinking at first like what in the hell do they do in there? Well, they actually do a lot of work and have many responsibilities. Veterinarians are typically only used in the army today. Their duties include food safety, military animal welfare and disease control.
Food safety pretty much speaks for itself, they inspect the rations and make sure no hostile forces have contaminated them, because that would be the easiest way to render the troops immobile. The food in the army is inspected more closely and must meet stricter criteria to pass inspection.
The army uses a variety of animals, such as dogs that are used to sniff out bombs, narcotics, and mines. Horses are used in  celebratory displays and such. Most branches even have mascots such as falcons or small dogs and cats. The army veterinarian's job is to keep all these animals healthy and happy.
Disease control would be carried out in a manner such as to make sure that when aircrafts come back into the U.S they aren't carrying too much soil or anything that could allow foeign insects or bacteria to invade and destroy domestic crops.
Also, to be a vet in the army means you are eligible for a scholarship, (I forget the name) that will pay for all your tuition, which could end up being almost 150,000 after 4 years of vet school, they pay for your books, they give you money each month to spend plus on top of that you still get army salary while in school. All in exchange for your time in the service.

Remixing Knowledge

It was pretty hard to find anything like a more modern remix of the veterinary field so I just chose a brochure that talks about supporting the human-animal bond and how this particular vet office does that. With the internet being so accessible today, putting brochures and advertisements on the internet so you only have to do a simple search is a remix in itself. Gone are the days when you have to go from office to office getting information and such.

R- There were many versions of this particular example, many had the different sections of each page in a PDF file so it was easier to read.
A- Instead of having one piece of paper folded three different ways, you can decided which section to read in whatever size font that you need. This format also allows you to save it right onto you computer for easier access.
I- This type of ad lets people choose what they read what they want and they also get better quality information. It is more likely there will be more information on the internet.
D- Using this type of communicatin via the internet allows for a broader audience and easier access to the information available.
S- Brochure online.
It's purpose is to get the information about the office out there for the audience, who are typically pet owners and internet users, to see and learn about it. It's successful because as I mentioned before, the internet is one of the main ways to get information in today's world.

Open Blog Post

The job outlooks for the veterinary field has increased 33% over the last decade, must faster than any other career. Many people consider their pet to be a member of the family, which means they'd be more willing to pay to make sure Fluffy will be okay. People are placing a higher value on their human-animal bond. The amount of pet owners purchasing insurance on their pet has also been rising, increasing the likelihood that more money will be spent on veterinary care.
This also means that the rate of non-traditional veterinary care such as cancer treatments and prevental dental care will rise, giving way to more veterinarians going into a specialty field.
Also, with their only being 28 accredited school and a limited number of graduates, this leads to excellent job opportunities.

Noting Cultural Assumptions

The movie Dr. Dolittle depicts a veterinarian who can talk to and understand his patients, the animals. This may add to the cultural assumption that veterinarians can connect on a level with animals that is different than others. It's not true, they just love what they do. It also adds to the theme that the only thing veterinarians do is private practice. This again, is not true. Like I've been explaining in my open blog posts, there are multiple ways you can use your DVM. It's not just so you can have your own clinic and work on cute little puppies all day. You can also work in the industry developing new medicine for humans and animals alike. You can work in a research lab with rats and mice discovering cures. You can work in the zoo and help to protect endangered species. Movies like the one pictured above have made people assume things about this field that may not always be true.

Open Blog Post

For my open blog post this week I'd like to talk about the veterinary schools in the United States. There are only 28 AVMA accredited veterinarian schools in the US. Alabama and California are the only two states that have two schools. Every other school has it's "own state." My hometown vet attended Auburn.
Michigan State University is ranked #9 in the lists for best veterinary program, whereas Knoxville University in Tennessee is ranked somewhere around #14 or #15. Cornell University was ranked #1. Also, the competition to get into the programs is just as hard, if not harder than getting into medical school. All programs are four years long with the first two years consisting of book work, classes, and studying. The next two years are clinicals and internships.

Contemplating Controversy

One controversy going on in the verinary field of medicine today concerns the hit tv show, "The Incredible Dr. Pol." I'm sure most of you have watched this. It is about a mixed animal veterinarian practicing in rural Michigan. Those on Dr. Pol's side state that his care is compassionate and not about the money. His practices have not changed since the 1970's when he came to the US from the Netherlands with a Dutch veterinary degree. Some other veterinarians have expressed their opinion that the show should be called "The Incompetant Dr. Pol" because he doesn't properly sterilize or anesthesia. A few people have pointed out some episodes where this seems to be the case. http://www.petsadviser.com/vet/dr-pol-controversy/

Another blogger expresses his views on this controversy. He saids that most people complain because his methods are substandard, bordering on malpractice, and give the viewers the wrong idea of how animals should be treated. Veterinarians today have to take oaths and have legal constitutions to follow just like a people doctor. http://avetsguidetolife.blogspot.com/2012/01/veterinary-medicine-meets-reality-tv.html

Open Blog Post

I've chosen for my open blog post this week about a different field of veterinary medicine. The veterinarian technician, or commonly called vet tech, is like the nurse of the animal field. When you were a little kid and you dreamed of becoming a vet, this is what you most likely imagined. Vet techs are the ones who generally care for the animal when it comes to the office, they figure out what is wrong with your pet, they feed it, nurture it, and do almost everything for it. The only three things that a vet tech cannot legally do it, prescribe medicine, diagnose the animal, or do any kind of surgery. However, they can FILL the prescriptions, they can be the circulating nurses for the surgery, and they can care for the animal after the vet diagnoses and describes the care needed.
To become a LVT, or licensed vet tech, you need a bachelor of science degree, graduate from a vet tech program certified by the AVMA, and completed general education courses at a university.

Reading Artifacts

Critical Reading

Preview:
You usually associate veterinary offices with happy, healthy pets. The cliental are usually animal lovers and have pets of their own. So they try to promote and sell that image of happy pets.

First Impression:
This dog looks really happy. I want my pet to be that happy so I'm going to bring them to this office. Awe that's such a cute puppy.

Key Ideas:
Happiness, content, healthy, nice, sweet. It puts this office into a good light.

Connections:
Other animals/pets, veterinarians, happy and healthy, makes you want to have happy pets by bringing them here.

Questions:
Why isn't there a picture of the actual veterinarian in the photo, don't they want to see who will be working with the animals? I know it's in Spanish, but shouldn't there be a few more words to tempt people to read and know more about it.

Summary:
Pretty typical ad, using a cute puppy to lure people in. Besides the dog, the ad doesn't really have a main focus.

Critical Response

Key Question:
Why is this ad using just a bold picture of a pup and that's all. People usually want to know more about where they're taking their pets.

Detailed Analysis:
Will people be curious enough to research more into this ad after seeing it on the internet or walking down the street?

Interpretation:
We want our pets to be as lovable and healthy as the one shown here advertising the vet's office.

Sythesis:
They're saying that they are confident enough to show just a happy pet and that will get people to research them more and come join their clientel.

Final Sythesis;
They know people only care that their pet is happy and healthy and showing us a picture of that is enough reasurrance that going to this veterianrian's office is going to achieve that goal.

Open Blog Post

For my open blog post this week, I'd like to talk about veterinary medicine in public practice. Public practice vets are generally employed by the government and what do they do you ask? They can do disease surveillance. There are 1700+ infectious diseases in humans with 50% being zoonotic (a disease or infection that is naturally transmitted between humans and animals, ex- rabies). They can make sure these stay under control and don't cause an epidemic. Another job they can do is Disaster Prepardness against terrorists trying to poison our food or water systems. They keep "Foot and Mouth" disease out of the United States. If that were to get over here, over half our population of cattle and sheep would be gone within a year or two. That would cause meat prices to skyrocket and you don't want me to go on. They work closely with the FSIS (Food Safety Inspection Service) to inspect our meat and make sure we're not injesting BES (Mad Cow Disease) or Bovine Tuberculosis.
APHIDS (Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service) to make sure we don't get anything foreign diseases coming through customs or through trade services. I could go on and on about what veterinarians in the public practice could do but I think this is enough to suffice.

Observing Community

I guess the CVM here doesn't do a whole lot of community events, I had to look in the upcoming events and I will talk about it. The 3rd annunal IRONDOG 5K run is coming up in about 2 weeks to raise money for owners who are finacially unable to provide medical care for their companions. It's like any other 5K trying to raise money, the members raises pledges for completion of the run and the funds will be used to support the medical and surgical management of cats and dogs at the Michigan State Veterinary Teaching hospital. As I looked back on the past runs, I see that anywhere from 500 to 600 people have participated in it and they raised $10,000. It shows that people care about others and animals and like to help, or maybe they just like to run. Ha, but anyway, there really isn't that much to say other than I can assume that by taking a day out of their own schedule to help raise money for people that wouldn't be able to provide otherwise means that there are some caring people in the world.

Open Blog Post

So I'm a little behind but my open blog post topic this week is on Food Animal veterinary medicine. Food animal is a common name for well, the animals we eat, such as dairy, swine, poultry and much more. Yesterday's food animal vets worked on an individual basis, treating animals that were sick. Today's vets work more on a herd basic, trying to prevent sickness in the first place. They also play a huge role in the disease eradication and prevention in the animal populations. One of their main concerns is food safety and public health. They are the ones who make sure our burgers from Five Guys isn't contaminated with Mad Cow or the milk we drink doesn't have TB.

Interview

      For my interview, I called our hometown veterinarian, Dr. English. He has owned and operated his own business for over 30 years. I started out asking him the main question,
     "What do you write?"
     "Well, I write out prescriptions and sometimes instructions for the owners."
     "What about when you went to school, how did you write your personal statement and such?"
     "Well, I wrote what was in my heart," he told me, "I focused on the emotion in my paper and how I was going to get that through to the board members."
That was predictable, giving that this career doesn't require a lot of papers and such. So I inquired on his means of communication.
     "How would you say you communicate with other veterinarians?"
     "Well, we have annual or semi-annual conferences we go to and either talk about the new breakthroughs in surgery or a new treatment we should try. Plus, it's a good way to network."
     So, my interview was pretty short, there was more to it but it wasn't relevent to this blog. I just learned that once you get out of school and have a job, the most I'll need to write is what pill to give your dog and when.

Open Blog Post

       My open blog post for this week is about the education you must have to even get into the veterinarian program at Michigan State or anywhere actually. When I first started to research colleges and what I needed beforehand, I figured you need excellent grades and no nonsense attitude when it comes to school. So when I started here as a freshmen and realized how hard some of my classes were and I wasn't making all 4.0's like I thought I needed, I was very disappointed in myself and thought maybe this field isn't for me. Then I went on a tour of the vet clinic here on campus and talked to some third and fourth year vet students. What they said was inspirational. Quite a few of them had even failed an undergrad class but they assured me that as long as you were determined and kept striving to succeed, then you would make it.
      On a more academic note, you need to have organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, microbiology, cellular biology, pysics, etc. Then once you get into the grad program that's another 4 years of school. The first two are composed of classes then once you're a third or fourth year you can start clinicals.

Delivery and Style

      The blog I read, http://vetsbehavingbadly.blogspot.com/ is written by a veterinarian but instead of talking about how surgeries went or other seemingly normal veterinarian things, he talks, well more or less rants, about the clients and what he goes through on a daily basis to be a good vet. The style and delivery are not medically accurate most of the time. Basically anybody could read this blog and understand it. A bank teller could read it and be easily entertained because that's how he wants it to be. Furthermore, a fellow vet could read it and easily relate to it, well anybody with rude clientel could.
      The scholarly article I chose to compare http://scopemed.org/?mno=21483 is written in a way that if you don't know medical terms, you will be completely lost. Its research on dilated cardiomyopathy in cats. I could only link the abstract form if you want to look, but the real thing is a long, drawn out paper about how it effects the cats and if they can be treated or not, but in a completely different style than the blog.

Open Blog Post

         This week I chose to write about veterinarians in the industrious field. While reading, I found out that veterinarians are responsible for a lot more than just setting your pet's broken leg. Did you know that it is usually a veterinarian that discovers foodborne illnesses. That's what they're trained to do! They also help in the industrial medicine field with pharmaceutical reasearch to develop drugs such as new antibiotics and vaccines for human and animals use.
        Veterinarians are also responsible for the supervision of the production of pet food. Also, vets who choose the research and industrial side of the career make, on average, 40,000 more a year than a vet who works at a clinic.

Asking Questions and Developing a Basic Knowledge

The ten thoughtful questions for the blog of the week that I could come up with were
1. How much an average does a veterinarian make?
2. How many different studies and ways can a veterinarian go?
3. Can anybody be a vet?
4. What is the recommended annual care for your pets?
5. Are the same types of care available for pets as there are for humans?
6. Is there a difference between vet tech and vet assistant?
7. Can you own a small clinic and still be a full time veterinarian and not business owner?
8. Is it better to get a minor in business if you plan on owning your own clinic?
9. What are the variables concerning the salary?

I was able to answer most of these thanks to the textbook, "Introduction to Veterinary Science" by James B. Lawhead and MeeCee Baker.

The average vet can make between 70,000 to 160,000 a year. It depends on many variables.
The vet studies can go many ways. You can becomes a zoologist and work at the zoo with exotic animals, or work with the FDA and industries testing the safety of new products and food.
Yes, anybody can become a vet, you just have to have the ability to tough it out because it's a long hard road.
You must get the annual shots and check ups twice a year, and of course if you see anything odd you must go and get it checked, but for the most part, animals are pretty healthy.
For the most part, you can get the same care for you pet and you can a human, but it might not go to the same extent.
There is a huge difference between vet tech and vet assistant, techs help with the surgeries and may even perform the smaller surgeries if the veterinarian is busy. Assistants may help keep the animals fed and watered or calm..
Owning your own business is a huge responsibility and it may take time away from your actual practice, but if you go in with someone else as a partner it may help.
As a personal opinion, I would think it wise to get a degree in business if you want to own a practice, that way you know what you're doing and don't run it into the ground and also can focus more on your career than worrying about finances.
Like I mentioned earlier, if you go into the industry, the salary increase is much bigger than if you are at a practice.

Analyzing Narrative

Everybody should know that becoming a veterinarian is very challenging. You need to have to grades and the desire to succeed. What everybody doesn't know is that it is just as hard once you're a vet. The ways are always changing and you have to constantly keep up with the new medications or ways of diagnosing the animal. Continuously going to meetings with others and maybe even continuing your studies.
I read an autobiography on James Herriot, an English veterinary surgeon. He was also an accomplished writer, with a series of books about animals and their owners that he encountered in the field. He emphasizes the struggle with the good and bad that comes with the job. You must be able to control your emotions when working and do what's best for the animal. Very sensitive people would have a hard time with this career. He narrates a story that describes some aspects of the field very vividly, so in a way you know how you would feel if you were in that situation. He also talks about the joy that comes with it, such as birthing a calf and knowing you brought that life into this world. He writes with powerful emotion but describes it so that the average person would be able to read it and feel like they were a veterinarian.

About Me

Many of you don't know this about me, but I'm aspiring to be a veterinarian. I believe it's my calling. Now, come to think of it, I bet a lot of you know nothing about me. My name is Melissa Shapiro and I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah but I call Tennessee my home. Oh yeah, I'm 19 and a freshmen at Michigan State University. I typically didn't read blogs, labeling myself as a non-blogger, but when asked to do this assignment, I started reading around and found some interesting material. My goals for this blog is to determine if this profession is what I expect it to be, although I have no doubts. A veterinarian is a hard profession to pursue. It can be heartwrenching one day and the next day could be so amazing you forget about the downs of the job. I would post a few links but I haven't figured that out yet. Well, that about me. Bye!